Walt Birkedahl began playing trumpet as a preteen and went on to found three community orchestras, play in the Denver (now Colorado) Symphony and give music lessons to his kids and grandkids.
Birkedahl was 88 when he died of pneumonia Sept. 26 in a Grand Junction hospital.
Birkedahl’s first “gig” was playing with the Highlander Boys, a Scout-like organization, said his son, Walter B. Birkedahl of Fremont, Calif.
After graduating from South High School, the senior Birkedahl played in a dance band that traveled to several states. He attended college for two years before joining the military.
After serving in World War II, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Denver, taught music at Morey Middle School and played in the Denver Symphony.
The family moved to Thousand Oaks, Calif., where he was a founding faculty member of California Lutheran College and organized a community orchestra.
After returning to Colorado in the 1960s, he founded the Longmont Symphony Orchestra while teaching in the Longmont schools.
He then moved to Grand Junction, teaching at Mesa College, conducting the Mesa College Civic Symphony and playing with the Grand Junction Symphony. He was founding conductor of the Valley Symphony in Delta.
For a time the family lived in Salt Lake City, where he played in the Salt City Symphony and the Logan, Utah, Chamber Orchestra.
Always teaching, Birkedahl taught members of his own family and other students trumpet, cello and violin, not stopping until a few weeks before his death.
Active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he directed choirs for his church.
“He had a beautiful tone on the trumpet,” said his son, adding that his father always had his mouthpiece in his suit jacket, even when traveling. He could blow through it to keep his lips in shape.
Walter J. Birkedahl was born in Denver on April 23, 1920.
He was a glider pilot in WWII, carrying equipment to men on the field.
In one harrowing experience, the glider he was in crashed into a hedgerow, which tore off the landing gear. The men were able to escape with German fire all around them. They hid in a ditch and later paratroopers were able to free the howitzer the glider was carrying, using hacksaws.
Fifty years later he received the Bronze Star in the mail, his son said.
Walter Birkedahl married Maurine Fitzgerald on June 16, 1949. In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by a daughter, Michelle Berry of Grand Junction, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, David Birkedahl.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
